Test strips are widely used for industrial and medical purposes. For example, industrial test systems use test strips for laboratory testing of water quality monitoring the levels of a variety of analytes including arsenic, cyanide and chlorine in effluents and surface waters. In medical settings, test strips are used, for example, to detect amino acids and proteins in urinalysis test, or to detect hormones in pregnancy tests. Most importantly, test strips are used for point of care testing that has been developed out of the need for clinicians to have rapid test results to improve the patient care process. In particular, test strips are used by millions of diabetics to monitor blood glucose levels, and by millions of patients who need to monitor the effects of oral anticoagulant therapy.
Because of the importance of obtaining accurate readings, in particular diagnostic readings related to medical conditions, it would be highly desirable to have a test strip that affords the user an increased reliability in obtaining a correct reading.
The present invention provides a test strip that automatically measures concurrently a sample test and at least one level of quality control on each test, and simultaneously determines whether sufficient sample was applied to the test strip and whether the control(s) are within preset limits. If they are not, the measuring device displays an error message.